Greens Call Dems Yellow

Article in the Southern by Nicole Sack on July 6, 2006.

Greens Call Dems Yellow
by Nicole Sack
The Southern
July 6, 2006

The Greens are cautioning the Democrats not to use state workers "on the clock" to conduct the petition challenge to keep the Green’s state slate off the ballot.

Rich Whitney, Green gubernatorial hopeful, said despite having the advantage of incumbency and a huge campaign fund, the Democrats apparently don’t want to risk letting the voters have a chance to vote Green in the General Election.

"More than 39,000 voters signed out petitions saying they want the Green Party on the ballot," said Whitney, a Carbondale civil-rights attorney. "But that’s still not good enough for them. Now they want to use up taxpayer money going through thousands of signatures line-by-line in probably a futile effort to keep the Greens off the ballot."

On Monday, two Chicagoland Democrats filed an 8,000-page objection to Whitney’s legitimacy.

"The Democrats say they just want to make sure everyone plays by the rules, but they don’t mention that the rules are a stacked deck against third parties," Whitney said. "I have to wonder if the Democrats could find 39,000 people in 90 days to sign a petition saying they really wanted Rod Blagojevich on the ballot."

Look for a full report on the Whitney Challenge in Friday’s Southern.